KIEV, March 11, /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has confirmed the detention of former Governor of the country’s eastern Kharkov region, Mikhail Dobkin.

The press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office said he had been detained in Kiev.

Dobkin, who stood at the head of the heavily industrialized region where a big part of the populations - and especially the residents of the city of Kharkov - speaks Russian as the mother tongue, is suspected of encroachments on the territorial integrity of the country and “of the activity aimed at decentralization of state power in Ukraine through its transformation into a federation.”

Mikhail Dobkin is known across the eastern and southern regions of the country as an active opponent of the West-backed far-right nationalists who came to power in Kiev amid violent streets riots at the end February.

Earlier this month, he made known his plans to run for presidency in an early election, which the incumbent authorities have appointed for the end of May.